Sunday, September 12, 2010

It's been a long time since I updated.
Between my last post and now, Goose bought me this super sweet new sewing machine. It's a Brother SE400 and does embroidery from templates on the machine.

My new baby

Then he gave me another surprise by giving me this (ridiculously expensive) software to make your own templates or from images. These are the patches that I'm using for one of my cosplays and the template was made by Goose. (He's such a software-phile. He loves to mess with stuff like this.)

Pretty patches! Easily resizeable too

I'm pretty pleased with the results. Besides the embroidery function, the sewing capabilities of this machine make my old machine look like a kid's toy. Auto reinforcing, auto cutting of threads, tons of different stitches, powerful machinery behind the shell; this machine makes sewing things super easy. (shameless plug)

It's just a matter of me buckling down and actually sewing. After I get into a routine, it should get easier to schedule my time for cosplay creation.

As Kaye said, she and I will also be working together to make sailor senshi costumes. I've recently bought from brass sheets from the local hardware store and will be trying my hand at that very soon. Pictures will soon follow.

Goose, Kaye and I have a pretty sizable list ahead of us, so there should be many updates to come along too.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

T-minus 3 days until Pokoteng (minus 2) does New York City! We're trekking to the second closest large city to us to go fabric hunting for the senshi costumes. Technically speaking, we can go to the closest one, but I've been wanting to go back to the city and wander around for a bit and do touristy things again.

Plus I know where the fashion district is and spotted at least four large stores around there. ZOMG fabric.

Hopefully we will succeed. The Joann's around us doesn't really have a great of a selection of serviceable fabric that has a heavy enough weight and a slight sheen in enough colors. And yes, I've looked at fabric.com already. My experiences with them was either hit-or-miss depending on the costumes. I have a bunch of fabric stockpiled for various costumes, but the one costume that I haven't nailed, either online or in person, is the one right below this post. Hurr. I think I may have finally found the right fabric for the overrobe (technically speaking, I've already found one, but the problem is that I didn't get enough yards *SHAKES FIST*).

The under robe is going to be an adventure for NYC, along with senshi gloves and senshi fabric (Pluto, Mars, Saturn and Moon.)

I just dished out about 60 dollars on 6 yards of 58" wide violet gabardine suiting, 4 yards of olive green cotton blend broad cloth and 4 yards of medium weight white cotton twill. The latter two are the lining and main fabric for Nave's Syaoran Nihon-esque (or is it closer to Shara?) outfit. Thank goodness we don't really need to line his pants with the same fabric.. I'm putting him to work with stamping the fabric with the necessary designs. Oy.

Another item on the list at DSW is a pair of red high heeled pumps. I should get these so I can color match the red of my sailor collar and skirt when we wander to the City. There are two or three pairs that could possibly work.. I just need to test walk and break them in. Oh, oh! A pair of tan character shoes too ._. Akira mentioned a boot cover tutorial for her Pluto costume and how they slip on like socks. This is a brilliant Idea, now that I think about it, especially for women who have HUGE issues finding knee high boots that are remotely serviceable for a costume.

Buying boots and modifying them for every costume you make can get pricey, especially if you have a fondness for costumes like that. And let's face it: a pair of comfortable long boots gets expensive. And fashion designers don't go "HURRR let's keep the cosplayers in mind!" I have dancer calves from so many years en pointe, so most of the boots in my size? Yeah, they don't fit. Either the ankle is too baggy, or I can't even get the zipper 3/4 of the ways up.

So boot covers, over character shoes. This is a good solution. Please insert a sagely nod here.

Who Are We?

Pokoteng Cosplay is a group made up of the two costumers Kaye and Akira, one prop engineer Goose and one additional model Nave. This is a documentation of our successes, failures and lessons we've learned from the different techniques required for cosplay.

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Disclaimer

Poketeng Cosplay, in no way, claims the name Pokoteng as our own. We acknowledge that the name is from Kozue Amano's works Aqua, Aria, Aria the Animation, etc. We simply are using the name for our group in honor of the rolly-polly President, with a penchant for cosplay himself.

All tutorials, photos and creative works are copyright to Pokoteng Cosplay, unless otherwise noted. Watermark theme. Powered by Blogger.